Eggplant and Slow-Roasted Tomatoes: Summer Forever

A friend of mine gave me a bag full of cherry tomatoes from her garden a couple weeks ago, with the most amazing tomato flavor ever. Almost fictional in its tomato-iness, you know? And I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get them all eaten before they went bad, so I did what any self-respecting locavore would do. I slow-roasted them, boosting that tomato flavor into a freakishly high yum-ness factor. But what to put it on? That’s when I got a little creative.

So this recipe is a totally weird one, because it takes a very long time to roast the tomatoes, but a very short time to prepare the eggplant. It’s the long and short of it, literally. But it’s a great way to either save tomatoes you’re afraid will go bad, OR a great way to make meh-tasting supermarket tomatoes taste presentable (after the tomato season is done, like now). And it’s brain dead simple. (No, you’re not allowed to add, “Just like the author” here. Even though it would be really funny).

SLOW-ROASTED TOMATOES WITH EGGPLANT

Prep time: 15 min.

Total time: 2 hr. 15 min. (2 hours of which is spend slow-roasting the tomatoes)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine tomatoes, oil, and spices to coat the tomatoes. Place tomatoes on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Roast at 250 degrees for 2 hours.

Photo by Toddie Downs

When tomatoes are done, turn heat up on oven to “broil” setting and rearrange oven shelf to be at the highest level. Score eggplant slices in a cross-hatch pattern about 1/4″ deep, then sprinkle with salt and pepper and spread either the pesto or olive tapenade on top. Broil eggplant slices 8-10 minutes.

Take eggplant out of the oven, dish it up, then spoon the tomatoes over top. Top each slice with parmesan cheese.

Even my veggie-aversive children ate this dish with gusto. I rest my case. Summer forever!